SC to hear Jairam Ramesh's petition against Election rules change on Jan 15

Govt has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh's writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, will come up for hearing in the apex court on Wednesday.

The matter will come up for hearing before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on January 15, according to the cause list uploaded on the Supreme Court website.

The Congress had filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court last month challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 and expressed hope that the apex court will help restore the "fast eroding" integrity of the electoral process.

 

The govt has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage as well as video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse.

AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who has filed the petition, had said, "The integrity of the electoral process is fast eroding. Hopefully the Supreme Court will help restore it."  "A writ has just been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961," he had said earlier in a post on X.

Ramesh had said the Election Commission, a Constitutional body charged with the conduct of free and fair elections cannot be allowed to unilaterally, and without public consultation, amend such a vital law in such a brazen manner.

"This is especially true when that amendment does away with public access to essential information that makes the electoral process more transparent and accountable," he had said.

Based on the recommendation of the Election Commission of India, the Union law ministry in December amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of "papers" or documents open to public inspection.